Loveday Barnes’ ‘Ground Work’ exhibition examines the unstable boundary between form and dissolution. Beginning from organic matter in states of decay, the paintings trace the moment when familiar structures lose their coherence and return to something less fixed, less identifiable.

The exhibition title draws on the Latin root humilis, meaning “close to the earth” or “of the ground.” From this root we take words such as humility and humiliation, each carrying the suggestion of being brought low. Here, the ground is understood not as a passive foundation but as a site of transformation, a place where forms break down, intermingle and become available for new configurations.

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